Dynamic Formation of a Hot Field Reversed Configuration with Improved Confinement by Supersonic Merging of Two Colliding High-<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>β</mml:mi></mml:math>Compact Toroids

Abstract

A hot stable field-reversed configuration (FRC) has been produced in the C-2 experiment by colliding and merging two high-$\ensuremath{\beta}$ plasmoids preformed by the dynamic version of field-reversed $\ensuremath{\theta}$-pinch technology. The merging process exhibits the highest poloidal flux amplification obtained in a magnetic confinement system (over tenfold increase). Most of the kinetic energy is converted into thermal energy with total temperature (${T}_{i}+{T}_{e}$) exceeding 0.5 keV. The final FRC state exhibits a record FRC lifetime with flux confinement approaching classical values. These findings should have significant implications for fusion research and the physics of magnetic reconnection.